Boulder County commissioners OK Eldorado Springs sewer rate hike

Boulder County commissioners on Tuesday approved a 10 percent increase in Eldorado Springs sewer system rates.

The rate hike, which the county staff and an advisory committee said is needed to cover increased annual costs of operating and maintaining the unincorporated community's sewage collection and its wastewater treatment facility, takes effect Friday and will begin showing up on the quarterly bills Eldorado Springs ratepayers' get in July.

Commissioners Elise Jones and Cindy Domenico — acting in their capacity as the members of the wastewater district's board of directors — voted their approval of the increased sewer charges for the Eldorado Springs Local Improvement District's 95 ratepayers.

However, Jones and Domenico also held out the possibility that Boulder County may give ratepayers a future break on eventually having to come up with $274,535 required to repay some of the loans made to the district from the county's own general fund budget between 2005 and 2009 — loans that helped cover cost overruns in the wastewater system's construction as well as startup expenses once it began operating about seven years ago.

Commissioner Deb Gardner is vacationing and wasn't at Tuesday's meeting.

Rates are based on the numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms in an Eldorado Springs home. A one-bedroom, one-bathroom residence, for example, now is charged $139.24 per quarter, and the increase will add another $13.92 to that bill, according to Pete Salas, the commissioners' staff member who's a liaison to the district and its advisory committee.

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The Eldorado Springs Local Improvement District now collects about $85,000 a year from its ratepayers, and Salas and the advisory committee have said the 10 percent increase would generate another $8,500 to help pay annual ongoing operating and routine maintenance expenses while building up a reserve budget account that could be tapped for the costs of emergency repairs or equipment replacements.

"We know that raising rates is not easy," Domenico told two Local Improvement District Advisory Committee members and two other Eldorado Springs residents who attended Tuesday's meeting at the Boulder County Courthouse.

Domenico said, however, that "it makes a lot of sense" to do so, in order to make sure the district's revenues are covering its annual operating expenses.

Domenico also noted, though, that the new, higher rates would still be inadequate to also cover repayments of the remaining balance of loans the county made to the district in past years.

Salas said Boulder County loaned the district $551,401 between 2005 and 2009, but the county commissioners have since forgiven $276,866 of that original total amount.

Forgiving repayment of at least part of the remaining unpaid balance "is a conversation I think we should have," Jones said.

Eldorado Springs resident David Levin told commissioners during their Tuesday public hearing that while "I'm not against the rate increase; I have no doubt that we need it," he has continuing objections to the type of wastewater collection and treatment system — built under county direction and management to replace inadequate septic systems — that wound up being designed and built.

Ken Sheldon, one of the Eldorado Springs Local Improvement District Advisory Committee members who attended the commissioners' meeting, said Eldorado Springs and Boulder County have been learning more each year about what it costs to run the 6-year-old system.

"Neither the county nor our community ever had a sewer plant before," Sheldon said, but there's nearly a seven-year track record of what those costs are — and what may be needed in reserve to pay for such things as broken sewer lines, when they occur.

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